The 15-incher will officially debut at the IFA 2009 show in Berlin, LG execs told Reuters, after which it will sell first in Korea before making its way overseas sometime after November.

And better still, at least for OLED fans, is word that LG is also preparing a 40-inch OLED product in the "not so distant future." We probably don't have to tell you that this "product" will undoubtedly be "expensive." [Reuters]

Take it with a grain of salt, but a SmartHouse Australia report from April claims to answer both those questions. It says a senior LG staffer reckons the OLED panels will initially "cost double, if not triple, the price of an LCD panel" (sounds about right), and that the 15-inch OLED screen will make its way into the next generation of MacBooks (wait, what?).

Here's what's more believable. According to OLED-Display.Net, the LG 15-inch OLED screens are already being made, and the company plans a global roll out soon after the display hits Korea in December.

As for the Apple speculation? Let us know your thoughts below. [via OLED-Display.Net and SmartHouse]

Ars interviewed Barry Young, Managing Director of the OLED Association, and managed to get a pretty good read on where the OLED industry is, and more importantly, where it's headed. The nebulous long term projections about OLED dominance still stand, but the short term prospects are, in a word, shitty. Here's why:

Some major manufacturers have gotten to be pretty good at building the small OLED TVs we're used to seeing. Samsung is about to introduce a 14.1-inch pipsqueak to go against Sony's 11-inch wonder midget, and prices for these mini-sets should start dropping soon enough. Unfortunately, these small OLED screens are the largest functional television displays anyone is capable of mass-producing right now.

Sparing you the mind-numbing technical details (those here), manufacturers are being faced with two equally unattractive (read: expensive) options for building TV-sized OLED TVs, like the one Samsung showed off last year: either devise an entirely new manufacturing process, which would require the invention of new techniques and machines for fabrication, or pursue a different type of OLED panel. Both options would circumvent the current size restrictions, but both options are extremely expensive.

In the current climate, companies like Samsung can't be certain that such risky investments will pay off fast enough, and for the time being, investment capital is scarce. Answering a question about Samsung's plan for a 32" OLED set, Young could only say this: "How soon Samsung will do their next generation will be affected by the downturn." In other words, sorry 2009. And 2010. [Ars via OLED-Display]

Okay, I guess that's really just another way of showing people how rich you are. But look at how smoothly it slices through that cucumber! I think smell an Iron Chef guest spot, maybe on an episode with white truffles and gadgets as the secret ingredient. [Gear TV/ComON - Thanks Niels!]

Brightness is the major issue here (though green is more saturated than the HDTV standard, if you care). If you move off-axis by 45 degrees horizontally (think viewing angle) then the image brightness drops by a third. And even if you actually calibrate the settings to "produce an optimum image," even on-axis, the best plasmas and LCDs are two-three times brighter (30-40 footlamberts vs. the XEL-1's 16.4 ft footlamberts).

Making the problem worse, one of the set's features is an auto-dimming circuit that slowly ratchets down the brightness (and contrast) within a minute of turning the set on (to around 7.8 footlamberts, way darker than "any calibrated plasma or LCD HDTV"). Sony says that it's to reduce the chance of burn-in, but it's more likely to help extend the set's life, which was discovered recently to only be half as long as it's rated for.

All that said, the picture quality remains "more breathtaking than its price," but you might wanna keep it in a dark room. [HD Guru]

This time Sony doesn't want to be left behind on the display front, and they are going to ship a real ultra-thin 11-inch OLED television in 2007. Not another prototype: a real TV. A small one that will cost a few times more than a comparable LCD, but a telly nonetheless.

They won't say how much but what it really matters is how many: Sony and partner Toyota Industries will only make 1,000 units every month, so don't count on seeing them at Best Buy. If Samsung or Matsushita don't give us another surprise, however, Sony will be the first to market an OLED TV of this size.

Given the state of OLED, the news is surprising but not really: after years of Trinitron domination, Sony completely lost the flat-screen bandwagon until they jumped back in with Bravia, all thanks to Samsung's LCD technology and their joint venture. This time they are joining forces with Toyota, and while Sony Executive Deputy President Katsumi Ihara said that "it won't be easy for OLED TVs to replace LCD TVs," the move demonstrates that they want to get there before anyone else, just in case. I am all for it Ihara-san, but please: no built-in Blu-ray drives this time. And if it doesn't work, we will always have FED. And Paris. –Jesus Diaz

Sony says to sell ultra-thin OLED TVs this year [Reuters UK]